


Not in Front of the Children

by JoMouse



Series: Christmas in July 2019 [7]
Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: Christmas In July | Christmas Out Of Season, Christmas Movies, Cute, Don't copy to another site, Fluff, M/M, Movie Night, Pack Feels
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-26
Updated: 2019-07-26
Packaged: 2020-07-20 14:29:40
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,297
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19993750
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/JoMouse/pseuds/JoMouse
Summary: The snow is finally gone and Stiles isn't as happy about it as he'd thought. Derek tries to bring the happy back.





	Not in Front of the Children

**Author's Note:**

> MERRY CHRISTMAS (in July)!!!!
> 
> This is written for the [Imagine-Sterek Christmas in July event](http://imagine-sterek.tumblr.com/). Today’s theme was Christmas Movies.
> 
> Today is the last day of the event, so I hope this is a good ending, although, after the wonderful response to yesterday's story, I'm not sure I can top that. Thank you for all those wonderful kudos and comments, by the way; I've been smiling so big and rereading them all day.
> 
> This is completely unbeta’d so all errors are mine, but I did try to catch them. Any outrageous grammar errors, please let me know!
> 
> Xx-Joey
> 
> Don’t know ‘em. Don’t own ‘em. Don’t show ‘em.

On the seventh morning, Derek awoke to a scream from Stiles. Leaping out of bed, he ran out of the room and vaulted over the railing to land on the floor below. He scanned the house and saw Stiles standing in the open doorway at the front of the house, a bemused expression on his face as he stared back at Derek.

“What happened?” Derek asked, scenting the air as he approached, sneezing at the jumble of emotions that were engulfing his mate.

“The snow’s gone!” Stiles said, gesturing wildly out the door.

It was then that Derek realized that he was hot. Really hot. Between the humid air pouring in through the open doorway and the heat in the house that had been jacked up to make up for the unseasonable snow, he was ready to melt. Glancing outside he was greeted with the typical green of a California July day in the middle of the preserve. Every single indication of the two feet of snow that had been there when they went to bed was gone.

“Hallelujah,” Derek muttered as he turned to the thermostat in the hallway, noting that Stiles had already turned down the heat. “Life can resume normality...well, as much normality as it usually possesses.”

When Stiles didn’t respond, Derek turned and found him still in the doorway, looking out into the yard with a pout on his face. “What? I thought you’d be thrilled that the fairy spell was over.”

“It’s movie night!” he said as if that explained everything.

“We always have movie night on Fridays,” Derek responded, moving to pull Stiles inside and close the door.

“But it was going to be a theme night! Christmas movies! Hot chocolate! Blankets!” Stiles was ranting.

“We can still do all that,” Derek suggested.

“Not the same,” Stiles said, pouting as he pushed past Derek and headed up the stairs.

He understood Stiles’ reaction, had been with him long enough to know how he reacted when something he was excited about went awry. He also knew the only way to make things better was to make the new plan even better than the first. With that in mind, he hurried back upstairs to get dressed and leave the house.

* * *

Stiles heard Derek come into the bedroom and then leave again, followed by the front door closing and the sound of the Toyota starting up. He quickly tamped down the immediate flare of anger he felt at being abandoned when he was pouting, knowing that he was being childish. The spell was only supposed to last a week and the first time he saw the snow, he’d been furious but once the decorations had gone up, a desperate attempt at trying to distract Derek from his stupidity, and his mate had joined in on the fun, he’d actually enjoyed the spell.

He had a feeling when he’d woken up that morning that the spell had been broken, the light filtered through the window differently, the house felt too warm, and something in his gut just felt wrong. A small part of him had hoped that when he’d gone downstairs and opened the door that he’d been wrong, that the snow had held on for just a little bit longer. He hadn’t meant to yell when he’d seen it was gone, hadn’t wanted to disturb Derek but the sound had escaped him before he’d even thought about stopping it.

Now he was sulking on the edge of the bathtub because he’d heard Derek heading upstairs and didn’t want to look at him anymore. He’d everything for movie night planned out and now it wouldn’t be the same. He briefly thought about pretending to be sick and telling the pack not to come over, but Derek wouldn’t let him get away with that lie.

He headed downstairs into the living room, looking over the decorations and planning out the best way to get everything taken down and stored away quickly. His eyes stopped on the photo of his parents that they’d hung the night before, right next to the one of the Stilinskis at Derek’s parents’ wedding, laughing with the happy couple. A lot of good memories had come out of this week of fairy magic and he was sad to see it end.

He carried up two empty totes from the basement, setting the one for ornaments at the base of the tree and reaching for the ornament he’d made for Derek signifying their first Christmas together. He’d just nestled it in bubble wrap and placed it in the bottom of the tote when his phone buzzed. Picking it up, he saw a text from Lydia.  _ “Get dressed. You’re taking me to the spa. Be there in ten.” _

Stiles wanted to point out he wouldn’t exactly be taking her if she was picking him up, but had learned long ago not to argue with Lydia, so he sent back a thumbs-up emoji and headed upstairs to get dressed. He debated texting Derek to let him know where he was going, but the ‘wolf hadn't said anything when he’d left, so he figured turnabout is fair play.

* * *

Derek shoved his phone in his pocket after getting verification from Lydia that Stiles was out of the house and sending off another missive to the rest of the pack. Within minutes, the house was filled with pack, including parents and the junior members. Derek gave everyone a different job to speed up the process of taking down the decorations inside the house. He assigned the tree to the Sheriff and Melissa, not trusting anyone else with the tree topper.

The junior members, under Mason’s capable supervision, removed the garland from the staircase and carried it outside while Boyd and Isaac worked together to sketch out plans and make a list of supplies needed before heading to the home improvement store for supplies. Scott drove the lawnmower around the corner of the house, trimming the grass that had grown despite being buried for a week. Erica enlisted Jackson in the kitchen, popping corn and assembling other snacks.

Derek grabbed the bolts of fabric he’d purchased at the craft store and carried them to the workshop, one over each shoulder and set to work. Lydia promised to keep Stiles occupied for at least six hours, but there was a lot to be done in that amount of time. 

* * *

Stiles had to admit that he’d had a great time with Lydia at the spa and then shopping at the mall, even if it meant being treated like a dress-up doll and forced into clothing he’d never consider for himself. Of course, each and every item ended up in bags that were taking up the backseat of Lydia’s car. 

“Glad to see the snow disappeared and didn’t just melt,” she commented as she pulled up in front of the house, parking next to Scott’s motorbike and behind Mason’s dad’s BMW. “That much mud would be a nightmare.”

Stiles sighed. She was right, he would hate having the mud tracked through the house, but he was still missing the sparkle of the snow. He knew better than to say it out loud, lest a fairy is within hearing distance. Grabbing all the bags out of the backseat, he followed Lydia into the house, surprised by the silence considering all the vehicles in front of the house.

“I’ll just put these upstairs and then we can figure out where everyone went,” Stiles said, eyes roving over the house and noting the absence of the decorations; the pack must have been busy dismantling the fantasy he’d been living in all week. Lydia just hummed and went into the kitchen. “Sourwolf?” Stiles called out.

“In here,” he called from the living room.

Stiles threw the bags through the door of their bedroom and hurried down the steps, wishing for a moment he could leap from the top floor as Derek did, but he got there quick enough. He was surprised to see Derek sitting alone in the room, an array of DVD cases on the table in front of him. “Where is everyone?”

“Don’t worry about it. Pick three,” he said, pointing at the cases.

Stiles stopped the questions on the tip of his tongue and sat beside Derek to sort through the movies. Each one was a Christmas film and he sighed. “Come on, Stiles. We can still do one more Christmas in July event.”

“The decorations are gone,” Stiles muttered, picking up  _ The Grinch who Stole Christmas _ and set it to the side, not in the mood for Jim Carrey. 

“Relocated,” Derek said, an enigmatic smile on his face when Stiles glanced at him. 

Stiles sorted through more of the cases, wondering if he should go for traditional Christmas movies or less traditional since it wasn’t actually Christmas.  _ Love Actually _ made the cut only because he knew how much Lydia loved it and how much the scenes with Martin Freeman and Joanna Page embarrassed Scott. The next to make the cut was  _ A Nightmare Before Christmas. _

After that, he knew exactly which film he wanted and he flipped through the cases once, twice and a third time before he turned a glare on Derek. “Where is it?” 

Derek sighed. “Stiles, we go through this every year.”

Stiles crossed his arms over his chest. “And every year I am right. It is the penultimate Christmas movie!”

Derek shook his head, but the curve of his lips belied his frustration. “Stiles,  _ Die Hard _ is  _ not _ a Christmas movie.”

“It is! Steven E. de Souza says so!” he argued, reaching out and poking Derek in the side, a manic gleam falling over his eyes when he jerked away.

“In the immortal words of Bruce Willis: ‘ It is a goddamn Bruce Willis movie.’”

“Screenwriter trumps actor!” Stiles screeched, falling into the familiar rhythm of the argument and digging his fingers into Derek’s side, squealing when Derek howled in laughter and tried to fight him off.

“Children, knock it off,” Sheriff said from the entry to the living room, arms crossed and a recognizable case in one hand. “As if Derek didn’t already have  _ Die Hard _ cued up as the first film. Now grab  _ Batman Returns  _ and let's get this show on the road.”

“You clearly get your misunderstanding of what is and is not a Christmas movie from your father,” Derek mumbled when the Sheriff left the room.

“I heard that!” the man said, poking his head back into the room. “And just ask Stiles,  _ Batman Returns  _ is the number one Christmas movie in California based on some internet poll or another.”

Stiles approached his dad giving him a high five, both of them laughing at Derek’s grumbling. “So, you’re here. There’s a ton of cars here and where is everyone else?” Stiles pointed at the television where they normally watched movies, but warm hands covered his eyes.

“Trust me,” Derek whispered and Stiles’ dad took his hand, the two of them guiding them through the house.

“What are you-” Stiles cut off when Derek removed his hands revealing the backyard of the house.

The garland from the stairs created roped off sections of the yard, each one containing two chairs and wooden boards cut and painted to resemble snow-covered cars. A picnic table near the porch was set up like a concession stand, tubs of popcorn and boxes of candy bars along with bottles of soda in a cooler covered the top. Fairy lights ran over and around everything, giving it an ethereal quality.

The pack was scattered throughout the yard, all of them looking at Stiles expectantly, but his attention was drawn to the enormous muslin cloth hanging between the two biggest trees in the backyard, the  _ Die Hard _ DVD menu flickering against it. Stiles stood frozen, eyes flickering over everything, picking up new details with each flash. The coffee urns marked with  _ Hot Chocolate _ on chalkboards. The roll of tickets sitting on the porch railing. The movie posters hung on various trees. He was speechless, for probably the first time in his life.

“Do you like it?” Derek asked, voice trembling. “I know you wanted to do the whole inside thing, but I thought a Drive-in might be fun.”

“Stiles, man, say something,” Scott spoke up from where he was scooping more popcorn into tubs, sprinkling flavoring on top. “You’re gonna give Derek a heart attack.”

“I don’t know what to say,” Stiles finally breathed out. “This is amazing!” He turned to Derek, jumping up and wrapping his arms and legs around him before pressing a smacking kiss to his cheek. “How did you get this all done today?”

“Everyone pitched in,” Derek told him, carrying him down the stairs and setting him down in one of the makeshift cars before going to grab concessions and everyone began settling into different cars. 

Once everyone was settled, the fairy lights were turned off and Derek wielded the remote holding his thumb above the button. “Last chance to pick a real Christmas movie,” he teased.

Stiles grabbed for the remote, the both of them wrestling for it until Boyd snatched it out of Derek’s hand and hit play. “Enjoy the movie, idiots,” he said, taking the remote with him as he settled next to Erica, smiling when she snuggled into his side, pressing a kiss to his cheek.

The pack was relatively quiet as the movie played, Stiles occasionally saying the lines along with the actors. At the epic moment, he raised his voice and shouted, “Yippie-Ki-Yay, Mo-”

Derke slapped a hand over his mouth and whispered, “Not in front of the children,” earning a smack and popcorn flying at him from all directions, the rest of the movie lost in a massive food fight.

**Author's Note:**

> Come say hi on tumblr: josjournal
> 
> I'm going to be honest, I've never even seen _Die Hard_ but I always enjoy watching people argue about its place in the ranks of Christmas Movies.


End file.
